The Selected Writings of Mark Pettinelli

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The Selected Writings of Mark Pettinelli

By

Mark Pettinelli

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The Selected Writings of Mark Pettinelli

By

Mark Pettinelli

This file is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 4.0 International license.

2021

https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:The_selected_writings_of_Mark_Pettinelli.pdf

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Some Notes about Logic

By

Mark Pettinelli

Creative Commons Attribution LIcense

So there is an emotion concept and a thought concept. Instead I mean there is an emotion process and a thought process. The thought process involves people thinking, and the emotion process involves people feeling.

There are also concepts that the person can think about, those concepts are part of the thought process. For instance someone could be having a stream of thought that involves thinking about different concepts. What kind of concepts could someone be thinking about?

Well I mean, a stream of thought could involve various different concepts that the person could be thinking about. There is also an emotion process, which involves a person having a steady stream of feelings, which could occur at the same time as a thought process.

What could make the thought process complicated? It could contain complicated thoughts, or complicated feelings as part of the feeling process.

Um so I’m trying to figure out what to write. This could be a sort of final article of sorts. I mean I've done most of my research already, the only thing left is to figure out what to write next. I can think clearly, I follow my emotional processes and my thought processes, and there are concepts that I am aware of. I mean the mind thinks with concepts and thoughts and it feels emotions all of the time.

If the mind feels emotions and thinks about or with thoughts all of the time, then what else would I need to know? Thinking isn’t that complicated, neither is feeling things. I mean I feel things all the time and it isn’t complicated.

It really isn’t complicated, like I mean a thought is just a thought, and a feeling is just a feeling. That’s fairly simple. There's also concepts in the mind, or concepts that you think about. Some of the concepts could be complicated but they’re still just concepts. Most concepts are simple I would say, however some concepts could be complex.

So what else should I write about, I want to learn more stuff. I don’t know what else I could learn though, I mean I know that the mind thinks with concepts and that there is a thought process and an emotion process.

The thought process consists of the person just thinking about stuff, while the emotion process involves the person feeling things, or their steady stream of feelings. There’s also concepts that the person can think about.

What would be an example of a concept that the person is thinking about. Going to war with another country is a concept. A democratic or communist government is also a concept. There are lots of different concepts someone can think about, I mean, practically everything someone thinks could be considered to be a concept.

So how would I break down a stream of thought then, or a stream of cognitive processes including both thoughts and feelings. CBT, or cognitive behavioral therapy, involves tracking how one’s feelings lead to thoughts, and thoughts lead to behaviors, or any of those occurring in any order.

So it’s a fairly simple process, humans have thought processes and emotional processes, or processes involving feelings. That seems fairly simple, I mean the thoughts could involve feeling things, or could involve reasoning about concepts or ideas. WHile the emotions could just involve feeling different things.

Um, so that seems pretty simple, there’s either feelings or thoughts, one or the other that someone could be feeling. They could also think while they are feeling things, but that is rather obvious. I mean obviously people can think about things and feel things at the same time.

Is there anything else I need to say about emotions and thoughts? I mean either it’s a thought or it’s a feeling. When someone is feeling something, what does that feel like? ANd when someone is thinking about something, what does that feel like?

Is there some sort of reasoning process involved with thinking where the person uses logic to check the truthfulness or validity or accuracy of their thoughts? Or is thinking more simple?

Um, so what else am I supposed to write, I’ve already explained how simple the thought process is, and the feeling process. Those are both mental processes, the other mental processes are perception, memory, language, and attention.

The perception mental process is also simple, thats just the person seeing things and understanding the visuals. The memory process is also simple, that’s just things pulled up from memory. The attention process is more complicated and involves the thought process and the feeling process, obviously because you can increase or decrease your attention depending on your emotions or thoughts.

That is, your emotions can influence your attention on something, and so can your thoughts. That’s kind of important to know. I mean people pay attention to things, then they can think about or feel what they are paying attention to. That’s three of the mental processes right there, feeling, attention and the thought processes.

For instance, if you are being emotional that is going to change what you are paying attention to, or how much attention you are paying to something. A person’s thought process might also interfere with their attention. I mean when someone pays attention to something they can focus on it more, direct their thoughts toward it, or direct their vision towards it.

That seems pretty basic, I mean obviously people either think things or feel things. It’s also interesting, for instance, is it any more complicated than feeling something and thinking something at the same time? Sometimes I suppose feelings could come along with thoughts at the same time, while other times a thought could create or lead to a feeling, or a feeling could lead to a thought.

Thoughts could also be more complicated, while I would say that feelings are simple, thoughts could be more complex because you could have a complicated concept that you are thinking about or a stream of thought could be complicated say if you were reading something there could be many ideas that you are trying to put together.

ALso with thoughts there is problem solving and decision making, problem solving often leads to the person reaching a conclusion or making a decision. Thats part of some thought processes. What other thought processes are there other than problem solving and decision making?

It would seem that mostly people try to make decision or figure out stuff or problem solve, I mean, what else could someone be doing or thinking about? That’s an interesting question.

It’s intellectual, I learned a lot of stuff. There's books in my room about cognitive psychology and cognitive science, not that there's that big a difference between them. I thought cognitive science was more about how the mind is structured and how it works with it’s neurology, while cognitive psychology was just about the minds mental processes, however if cognitive psychology is about the minds mental processes, then it is also about how the mind works and how it's structured.

I also realized what a concept is, a concept is an idea or thought in your head, it could be about anything but is a coherent idea or thought. It could be a representation of an object in the world, or any general idea really. That makes me think, what kind of ideas does the mind think with - theres ideas about people, ideas about objects, and ideas about anything. Ideas can be emotional or intellectual if you think about it.

An intellectual idea could be a concept about a subject like math or politics. Ideas can be about physical things like how your body feels, or they could be ideas about how you are thinking or the state that your mind is in. Mind and body are connected, however, so I would think it's safe to say that if your mind is feeling some way, then your body is going to respond.

So what else do I know, I mean, i’ve learned about what a concept is, what an idea is, what a thought is, and what a feeling is. What else would I have to explore? I mean I think I'm fairly logical and clear thinking. It’s hard to be clear thinking sometimes if you’re being emotional and stuff. If someone is being emotional, then it might be harder for them to think. I said, however, that I am perfectly logical and clear thinking. All the thoughts I have are logical ones, and I understand what is going on. I seem to be on top of things and know what I am doing in addition to being logical and clear thinking.

So what else do I need to explore, that is the question. I started with my psychology of emotions and thoughts book in 2007, now it's 2021 so that means its been about 13 years since I started doing research.

I mean, what led to my being clear thinking now. Was it my understanding of how concepts work in the mind? I have a good understanding of cognitive psychology and cognitive science. I understand emotions and thoughts, and howI experience them. That's pretty much all I need in order to function with feelings. If I have feelings, then I should be able to function and think clearly, I mean I understand that those are feelings, and that I can still think with thoughts.

Thoughts can be complicated if the thought is about a complicated concept or idea, however. But I’m perfectly clearly thinking now, I've always been a clear thinker but before I didn't have this many emotions, or this intense of emotion. So what else do I have to say? I mean I know how to think clearly, I have a steady stream of concepts that goes through my head that I think about constantly. There's ideas, thoughts and concepts that run through my consciousness all the time.

What could interrupt my consciousness or my stream of thought then? I also do stuff like watch tv or listen to music. Consciousness is pretty interesting if you think about it.

I mean, I want to become more intelligent, but I don’t know what to explore next. I’ve already explored cognitive psychology, emotions, thoughts, consciousness, concepts and ideas, and logic. WHat else would I need to research or understand, that is the question.

Um, so I’m trying to figure out what i should research or think about next. I already know cognitive science and how the mind works, I also know logic and concepts, and how those work in the mind. I think perfectly fine and logically. I have a steady stream of thoughts all the time that's perfectly clear, and makes perfectly good sense. I’m intelligent and know what I am doing. There was a bunch of times i went to the emergency room and was not clear thinking, but I got over that and now am clear thinking all of the time. I don’t know what else I would need to research here lol. I think I'm doing a fine job with running my life, I don’t know if there's any more information I need in order to function or even develop myself more.

I mean, if I can think clearly, then what else would I need to know? That's kind of an important question. I’ve already done a lot of research that has taught me about cognitive psychology, logic, concepts, cognition and emotion, and other topics. That research and that understanding that I currently have seems perfectly sufficient. I mean I know what logic is - i’ve looked at a couple of logic textbooks. I also know how the mind works because I've read a bunch of cognitive psychology textbooks.

Theres only a few mental processes like attention, perception, memory, emotion, language, deciding, thinking and reasoning, Those are important mental processes. Part of the mental process of thinking involves logic and concepts. I also understand that I use emotion regulation - which is part of the process of emotion.

As a child I did not understand that I could control or influence my emotions, I didn’t even realize that I had many emotions to begin with. Now I am more self-aware and know when I’m having an emotion and what I can do about it.

I have a lot of books in my room, what else do I need to learn from these books? I’ve already pointed out in this article of notes that I am clear thinking and understand cognitive psychology. I have some cognitive psychology textbooks that talk about the mental processes of attention, memory, perception, emotion, language, and deciding, thinking and reasoning. I also have some textbooks on emotion and cognition. The relationship between emotion and cognition is extremely important. That's basically all the mind is doing, either thinking about something or feeling something, or both.

People also make appraisals of their emotional state. The appraisal is cognitive, while it's about your emotions.

So what else do I need to know or understand? I mean, what else am I supposed to learn? I already know how the mind works through my understanding of cognitive psychology and the mental processes. That gives me a good idea as to how I think and what I need to know in order to think clearly. What else do I need to know? Logic is important, I still have to go through some logic textbooks. But what could they say about logic? I mean logic is fairly simple, I mean i know if what I am thinking makes sense, is logical and valid. I don’t really ever think something that is inaccurate, I can keep track of all my thoughts and know if something is inaccurate or if I should think differently about something.

I mean, what is logic exactly, I said before that I was clear thinking and all my thoughts were logical. However, is there more to logic than figuring out if each thought the person thinks makes sense? What other processes are involved. There's problem solving and decision making, for instance.